Part 131
Sitemap --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- - Lots More fabulous items/ideas for a BioShock Rapture MMORPG --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- - Part 131 --- --- --- --- --- Puzzle Bits that Players Find Over Time : * Put the pieces together to make useful things (neat decorations might be considered 'useful') * Documents with clues to some goodie (its amazing what Splicers used for toilet paper) * A "Painting" decoration (lots of unique artwork to use ripped up and the pieces out there to be found) * Some very useful mechanism (enabling something the Player couldn't do/expand before) * Trading of parts between Players (Have X, Seek Y) * Use of Workbench and Bulletin Board (nifty interfaces) to keep pieces organized and easily visible (not buried away in stacked inventory Containers) * Can be a Group activity where many Players add their piece to the 'puzzle' that will be shared by the community (or a 'Party'/'Association'). "HEY LETS FIX THAT OLD TRAM -- WERE ONLY MISSING A B C X Y Z and Q " ... --- --- --- need a game activity page Go Through the Motions : Sort of Tutorial-like, but with so many aspects available in the MMORPG, there is much more than just learning how to work a basic interface button. The Player gets exposed to all the many different aspect of life in New Rapture (and alot of potential/useful shortcuts and actions). If you constantly don't know about something, or have fears of "IT IS TOO COMPLICATED TO USE !!", then many Players will never use those things, and potentially miss out on a large part of the Game. The Player is led through the motions of doing the interactions/activities manually so that they understand all the elements involved (And see it isn't hard), and then the shortcuts are shown and walked through (the way the Player can create standing orders and processes that can get done automatically - to eliminate tedious stuff). Used also for enabling various City Services (may have a Mission profile that needs to be 'achieved' - except without the usual mind-numbing repetitiveness, which is the recourse of so many MMORPGs). Its only logical that a more complex game would have more extensive Tutorials (and it can be easier to learn by directly doing it In-Game, than just reading some Internet-based Instructional (which there would be also in this MMORPG). --- --- --- Make more use of the word "Pan-Dimensional" ' '''Make more use of the phrase "Derp-type-logic" ' --- --- --- '''In post-fall Rapture you might want to be wary eating the 'sausages'. --- --- --- X Punk ... ''' : Didn't they know that all you have to do is to "Glue some Gears on" things to make them "tek-no-log-ical" ??? Woulda save em TONS of development money, so they wouldn't have to 'stress out' so much. It wouldn't have looked any worse than so many of the game mechanisms they came up with. --- --- --- '''MMORPG Conveniences : Realism for movement would be part of the game, but some things can be done to minimize wasting Player time. 'Get Around' the 'World' without much Player effort -- while Player is paying attention to other routine/mundane management/status stuff. Players don't have unlimited Play Time, so you prefer to have them where they want to be without excessive in-game delays. * Your Character moving to some location (prepositioned) while you are offline (using safe 'established' routes). Various routine locations would be premapped. * NPC 'Guides' that takes you to a place (not Teleporting, but traversing a 'routine' path to a place/location), while you can be busy issuing 'Team' orders/checking projects statuses, checking messages and bulletin boards/newspapers, etc... * A decent (and customizable) MAP system to facilitate all this (probably with movement logs also) * NPC 'Team' that carry out 'Projects' while you aren't Online (also fetch things, make preparations and meet at X for Missions). NPCs that move stuff (like loot) while you are "offline" * Have (Your and NPC) Equipment sets pre-designated (I wish they had this in the original X-Com), preset by the Player for (quick)'switching' roles, without alot of interface 'elbow grease' being required over and over (and over). --- --- --- Perception : Halfway imaginative Plot : Like the Emerald City in Oz (which in L Frank Baum's original story the occupants all had to wear green glasses, the city not really being emerald colored) that Comstock would have put something in the water to have the inhabitants see his holy city be so grand, when it was really a shithole. Booker starts commenting about it, but gets his dose soon enough. Of course, just like game magazine reviewers, there are those who 'Buy Into It' without any extra help except 'money changing hands'. --- --- --- Bad Things Just Happen ? ' : H G Wells published War Of The Worlds 1898 when Columbia was supposedly floating about. So they (the Infinite BS writers) should have taken the opportunity to 'name dropped' this kind of stuff into their fantasy story (they certainly tried to with everything else). Oops, all that Quantumz BS activity tipped the Martians off that there was fresh meat on Earth, *OR* a Tear allowed them to access the one thing they needed to make possible their conquest ... Thus The Luteces doomed the Human Race in yet another dimension ... (Too bad that 'dimensional "god" Elizabeth isn't omniscient (all seeing) enough to see the Luteces are the real cause of all these horrors, and seek revenge (or justice ?) on THEM ! ) --- --- --- '''The Left Suitcase ... ' : I saw a article on a 'collectors' website where suitcases had been recently found, left by people who died in (the now long abandoned) insane asylums, where being examined/displayed. Imagine what various 'Splicers' have in THEIR suitcases (we saw alot of these handy containers at various Splicer lair locations in the Solo games). Likewise various duffle-bags, apple-crates, ammo cases, coffeecake tins, etc... So yet another Template (for the auto-generator system) with various themes to be created from a wide range of items (including rather interesting documents ...). With enough imagination/creativity, many a small vignettes might be made possible. --- --- --- '''Use of Cylinder-type Recordings Lasted into the 1920s : Cylinder type machines (similar to the first Edison ones) had the advantage of being able to Record. Infinite BS implies recording on a 'hand wave' disk-type mechanism, which though 'pretty', has serious complications/defects in any Real World universe (('' Looked 'good' I suppose in some early game design meeting, to ignorant game developers'' )). In for a pound of BS, in for a ton ... Those mechanisms making up those Infinite BS Vox-o-Phone Audio Diaries are in the Top Ten stupidest things seen in the game. - New Gear (for the 'Satire' Columbia Redo) - the Record Player HAT (it also shoots buzzsaw blades/poisoned disks) --- --- --- Mission Template Escort Quest/Mission : Make sure it doesn't appear like the things being 'escorted' seem to try to walk through every single hazard along the way on purpose (many MMORPG 'escort' missions seem to be like this). Random encounters (on a detailed Sandbox world) should be most of the happenings (and makes it a bit different for each Player who does that task). One main 'opposition' (enemy/roadblock) within the Mission is sufficient (particularly if the 'Fail' ratio is high and will make repeats tedious if you are hit by one-after-another 'FAILZ" on a long Mission path). --- --- --- High Res Cityscape Picture : Lotsa nice names, even if some of them are only Semi-Canon * City Center * Tattoo * Soho * Silver Cocktail Bar * Clifton * Night Club Casino * Big Dipper * Cabaret * Paradiso Cafe * Radio Action * Elizabeth Music Hall * Coffee Bar * Restaurant * Cadillac Hotel * Finley * American Dream * Robertson's Tobaccoria * Theater * Aladdin * Fleet Hall * Cohen's Collection * Hotel * Casino Blackjack Roulette American Dice * Open Plasmids Generally placed on buildings in the 'window' cityscape of a type we never got to be inside of (in-game we were in those sprawling irregular messes used for the 'levels') - Consider that because of the rate which light is absorbed over distance through water, that these signs had to be VERY bright to be seen from building just 100 feet away (so you wouldn't want to have a window near them unless you liked things blindingly bright). A good reason for the excessive building (and distances between them) sizing to be merely 'artists license' of game developers who haven't a clue about reality. Big signs outside seen by virtually nobody, versus ones that people walk right past ... --- --- --- Police File Reports From Old Rapture : * Recovered From Smuggler Craft - One Cartoonish Gold Plated "Pony" Statue/Figurine. * Youth Arrested for Breaking into Circus Of Values machine and modifying it to Use Vulgar Language to Its Customers * "Found guilt of performing an unnatural act with a Sea Slug" - Remanded for Psychiatric Evaluation (hmmm) * Known criminal found shot to death in Viaduct with sign saying "Robber" around neck * Loud Party, investigation released with warning suspects dressed in Rabbit suits --- --- --- Moronic Celebrities Which Many Ocean Clams have Higher IQs Than : Rapture would also have them just as they exist throughout the World and history. (You COULD buy your way into Rapture, and various Heirs often don't have the skills to build the fortunes they inherited) Sander Cohen at least once in his career had enough talent to get paid sufficiently to afford building the Fleet Hall Theater on coming to Rapture (much of the rest of Fort Frolic funded by investors ...). (I suppose if Cohen had royalties paid for his previous 'Surface' works, he somehow might continued to collect (or did he sell off The Rights ...) and have it converted and sent to him (even after 1952 critical materials and other things still were being (bought and) sent to Rapture via Ryan's Surface organization. AND some immigrants property assets might take many years to finally sell-off). Many 'celebrities' in the Real World barely made a living (or not for very long) so might retain 'notice' (being 'celebrated') even without much financial success. Lots of "One Shot Wonder" artists amongst the Amateurs ( '' Don't quit your Day Job... '' ) who never again have a 'Hit', though how they might become 'big' celebrities (other than with the cliche '15 minutes of fame) has more to do with the people dependent ON 'celebrities' - promoters, merchandisers, newspapers, critics, etc ... --- --- --- RATS THE SIZE OF LARGE DOGS !!!! ''' : Rumors and Missions ... (it was seen as wise to investigate these rumors by New Rapture's City Hall) ("Arts teh seiz fo glare Gods" ???) Mis-heard words from ADAM-addled brains of Splicers ? ("Themz is Fightin Wordz!!!") "All them (dead) Cats you saw" ... It was an advantage to have a kitty that kept vermin from nibbling on you while you sleep (and once in a while they provide dinner for YOU - tasty tasty rats...). --- --- --- '''3D-Printing Integrated into Game : 3D Printing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing of small 3 dimensional objects is a new and developing technology, which no doubt will be used for many things in the future. Right now the printing Machines and Processes are still far too slow and problem-ridden for use in an automatic commercial application (like in your Big-box store or Supermarket or Gamestore). They are also now costly to operate, but that will come down/change as suppliers multiply with the market. In the future, the machines will improve significantly and become a resource for computer games. This complex MMORPG game type (its features) are not likely to happen too soon, so that gives a chance for the 3D printing to become more prevalent and improved, and cheaper. ((The Technology is really still in its infancy.)) * 'Printable' Puzzle pieces that you print out, accumulate and manually manipulate to solve in-game puzzles. 3D pieces are much easier to 'juggle' in your own hand. * The usual schwag figures and objects some people collect ( COLLECT THEM ALL !!! ) A Feature like this would Not be Required for play, but serve as an extension. Pieces of furniture for a diorama of you personal in-game house/shop/office (plus floors, walls, etc...) Figures of you character in amusing poses, etc.. Trophies from various missions (adaptable for charm bracelets, I suppose.) SO Add Another Tool/Template - In-game Object 3D Printing Data For these 3D Printable Object Assets, more data is required than just the games rendering data. There also is additional 3D Printing Data for the Object, which is the scripting needed to run the 3D process (which is quite a bit more, as it has to do with real structural properties and idiosyncrasies of the machine and materials used. Ex- the object has to be supported/propped up with printed supports/tabs/rods WHILE it is being printed - that's required in the current 3D print machine process). Coloring the 3D printed objects right now is a big problem, but no doubt they will have more solutions found for it as the technology's use increases (much lime color printers superseded B&W). --- --- --- 'Absinthe A Symbol or Simply An Appropriate Prop ? ' : Wormwood (a key ingredient of this liquor) was something that naturally helped rid your system of PARASITES (worms), but like most medicines in excess can be poisonous. Because of its hallucinogenic effects, it became a favored liquor in the turn of the century Paris scene (Toulouse LautrecA Famous Painter ...), drunk specifically for THAT effect. Excessive use lead to insanity (it being high proof alcohol probably likewise helped). --- --- --- ' "Wired a Photo" (Wirephoto) - Picture Transmission over Telephone Line ' : Scanning and Sending of a paper image using audio amplitude over a (early on was usually a dedicated ) phone line (or via radio), copying a drum-rotated paper image to a matching receiving machine, both using a fixed size drum rotating at the same speed. This was able to be done in the 20s (and earlier), but better in the 30s. Mostly used by newspapers to send pictures, but was in used by police agencies as well. WTF this got to do with Rapture ??? (Where there's little point because of the short distances) Pictures were sent halfway around the World by telegraph with a similar mechanism in 1899 (So Columbia can get in on some of this technological goodness -- and not a quantum was in sight for this ...) Maybe its Stuff Ryan's Organization (on the Surface) keep sending to Rapture by Radio about World Events or "People of Interest" (troublemakers who MIGHT have has hidden their past) ... Encrypted so isn't obvious what its about, or who its to. In the MMORPG, maybe you find an abandoned Room full of years of the sendings (No it DIDN'T keep going with nobody there - this isn't Pixie-Dust-Land here in Rapture). --- --- --- --- --- . .